9/12/14

I wanted to
wait a few days before I commented fully on the shutting down of David Wright
for the remainder of the season.

I have a few
things to say here.

Inflammation
isn’t something that is going to ruin your career, but it is something that
will limit your ability to play this, or any game, at 100%. It really doesn’t
matter how hard you try to swing at a baseball, or throw one to your catcher,
your ability to do so at a pro-level will be limited simply by the fact your
body will shut down by the percentage that the inflammation is hindering what
you are attempting to do.

You can only
take so many Ibuprofen and run so much hot water over the area that is hurting
you. ‘Shutting down’ will always be top on the list of medical solutions for
this problem.

Secondly,
whose responsibility is it to come to the realization that there are 138
million reasons to put your start third baseman on the shelf until next season?

Folks, I usually don’t miss an opportunity to
be critical of either Terry Collins or Sandy Alderson. I think it is normal to criticize your
management, but, in this case, the first responsibility falls on the player.

I’m sure the
Mets management (and medical staff) could observe Wright and see things weren’t
kosher. What do you do? You walk over to your guy and ask him if he’s okay and
he says ‘yeah’. Do you start an argument with him?

Sandy said
all the right things when he discussed this shutdown. You expect your stars to
play hurt, but you also expect them to know when even they can do nothing to
solve this while still playing the game daily.

So, at what point does the actions of either
Fred or Jeff Wilpon become enough to force the
sale of the organization, similar to what went on out in the west coast with Donald Sterling, or the mess currently involved with
the owner of the Atlanta Hawks?

I
read over the statements made in the lawsuit against both the team and the
Wilpons personally, by ex-VP, Leigh Castergine,
that Jeff “frequently humiliated Castergine in front of others”, pretending to
see if she had an engagement ring on.
The suit also said that Wilpon told her that she would make more money
when she gets a ring.

Can
you do this in 2014? I barely could in 1980.

New
Commissioner, Rob Manfred, will only look weak
unless he takes the same approach here as Adam Silver did
with Sterling.

It
is becoming so embarrassing to be associated with this team, if you call what I
do being associated. Why in God’s name would anyone want to take their family
to this city and do what they do best for this man and his family?

I
know people are innocent before being proven guilty, but I hope that Manfred
can step in here before this becomes a long, drawn out, ugly mess, both for
baseball and the Mets. Find a new owner, settle the suit, and make the Wilpons
go away.

Please.

I was
watching MLB television while writing my column and Joel
Sherman came on, discussing Daniel Murphy.
He said something really interesting. He stated that this currently is a short
that simply doesn’t have that many decent ‘hitters’ and he can’t understand why
the Mets would want to trade their best hitter, one of the best in baseball,
and one that is paid less than $10mil per season.

You know, if
we weren’t Mets fans, and we rooted for some American League team out west, all
this would sound pretty stupid. Someone in your inner circle might point out
that the Mets had a prospect second baseman ready to step in, but you’d counter
with the fact of ‘how many times have I heard that before’? Again this is one
of the top hitter in the game and he’s cheap!

Just food
for thought.

We move on
to the NL Central and first take a look at the St. Louis Cardinals.

According to
Cot[i],
the Cardinals have a 2014 payroll of $111,250,000.

Outfield
wise, LF Matt Holliday is under contract through
2016 at $17mil per season. Both centerfielders, Jon Jay
($3.25/mil - .321) and Peter Bourjos ($1.2mil
- .245) are entering their second arbitration year. Right field was originally Alan Craig, but has now been taken over by
super-prospect Oscar Tavares (.228) since the
Craig trade to Boston.

Regarding
shortstop, Jhonny Peralta (488-AB, .264, 19-HR,
63-RBI) signed on for a 4-year, $53mil deal that ends at the end of the 2017
season.

Mack
Observation –

Well, I still think the Mets made a
mistake in not signing Peralta; however, in retrospect, he’s only having the
same kind of year Wilmer Flores would have
produced if he played the entire season. This fact alone represents a $50mil+
savings for the Mets.

No, this is one of your ‘target
teams’, but, in this case, it’s for an outfielder. They can’t field all the
great ones they have on their team, and coming up to their team soon.

I know in my
heart that the Cardinals would push Grichuck, but the guy you want here is
Piscotty. He’s a natural born hitter and his swing would fit in perfect in the
spacious CitiField.

What do the
Cardinals need? Well, they have to start thinking about an eventual replacement
for Yadier Molina behind the plate. A.J. Pierzynski ($8mil) will test free agency and Kevin Plawecki would be the perfect replacement.

Let’s
remember that Plawecki is ranked by Baseball America (mid-season ranking
reports) as the 40th prospect… Piscotty is ranked at #49. This is
how valuable a catcher-prospect is and a one-to-one deal for these two guys
should be accomplishable.

Lastly, in my opinion, there are only a handful of great Mets blog sites. John Delcos’ New York Mets Report is one of them.

The site fell silent in the past six months and it looked like we lost him as a blogger. Well, it turned out that we actually almost lost him... period.

19
comments:

I'm glad David finally shut it down. It's too bad he did not DL himself and get a cortisone shot. Campbell would have done OK, and maybe David with an extra week or 2 could have finished the season. Is what it is - get better, David.

One of the posts yesterday suggested Murph to 3rd and Wright to LF. Very interesting. If David can handle LF, and he's willing, why not? That would be quite a solid offense next year, especially if they make the park suitably less "spacious" for 2015.

So am I the only one who finds it almost a little hysterical that Chris Young is hitting bombs and walk offs for the Bronx bombers right now? Amazin....the difference between playing for the Mets, and playing for the Yankees.

Speaking of HBP, did any of you see the Stanton clip? Damaging fastball right in the face - they rule he was swinging!!! And then the guy who pinch hits for him gets hit on the hands, and he's ruled as swinging!!! They both looked like desperate evasive maneuvers to me, not swings. Are these umps nuts??

Ernest - The fences are the main difference. Center is the same at Citi Field and Yankee Stadium, but the left field and right field foul poles are about 20 feet closer to the plate at Yankee Stadium. Right center is 15 feet closer at Yankee Stadium, but left field at its deepest is 15 feet deeper at Yankee Stadium. I remember Young pulling a lot of his long balls close to the foul pole in left field.

John, About this mall - will the plaque where Shea's home plate was be in the Sears, or at the Orange Julius? Knowing the Wilpons, it'll probably be under a urinal in one of the men's rooms.

I am not sure that moving Wright to LF would result in the additional pop the Mets are looking for and normally don't go for moving players into totally new positions. As far as the dimensions, I don't know the minutes specifics on distance, but if you want to bring them in a few, knock yourself out; with the emerging staff, seems like a bit of a gain than a loss, but not that much at the end of the day. I would rather see the OF fences go back to traditional shaping and not have all the nooks and crannies

@Mack When you said that's what you could have gotten from Flores for a huge savings, what moron filling out the lineup card marginalized him (and continues to do so putting him in the 8th spot in the order)?

Before Wright was officially shut down (wasn’t this an obvious eventuality?) I suggested here playing Murph at 3B often enough to (a) enhance his value off-season; (b) allow the Herrera-Flores DP combo to be fully evaluated; and if (a) & (b) were successful, (c) contemplate the idea of a 2015 DW in LF.

Unless blown away by a deal for our all-star 2B/3B in the fall, I would extend Murphy. A medium length, sub-superstar contract might actually add to future trade value. Now I’ve liked Daniel since I first noticed him as a back-field call-up for a ST game (and asked Mack “Who is this guy?”). It’s not entirely rational, I admit; just little things like the way he smiled at the Colo bench when Blackmon attempted a bunt his way on the first pitch after his return (It welled up the same sense of affection I had for Campy & Gil in my pre-adolescence.)

Anyway, I now contemplate the following scenarios involving keeping Murphy in Queens (at least for a few more grins):

1.- Start out 2015 with a Wright-Legares-Granderson OF; Duda, Herrera & Murphy at 3, 4 & 5 and let ST determine SS among Flores, Reynolds (Rivera!), etc. If Nimmo is mlb ready by July, someone will have to take a back seat. My preference, Grandy—but a deadline deal of Murph could not be ignored if the return value were there.

2.- Sign Cuddyer (David wants him). Murphy starts the season at 2B & Grandy in LF (were he should be playing anyway) and if Herrera AND Nimmo are pounding at the door in June/July the above midseason logjam is compounded. Conforto replaces Cuddyer in 2017. Depending upon return value & mid-season performance, would anybody consider moving Duda & returning Murphy to 1B? Cuddyer? There’s still the Grandy question—a mighty expensive 4th OF’er.

3.- Pure fantasy: sign Yas ‘mas. The only imaginable possibility of this happening would be if the Granderson contract could be unloaded…or Wright! Wright for Seager—add croutons & dressing (and ISIS converts to Buddhism exchanging AK-47’s for Tibetan Longhorns) Thus suspending reality for a moment, I think of a Nimmo-Legares-Tomas OF and worry about Conforto when it’s time to do so. Rosario eventually bumps Seager to 3B and the decade ends with a Smith (Tony Gwynn), Herrera (Joe Morgan), Rosario (Ozzie), Seager (Brett) IF